BBC ON THIS DAY | 10 | 1985: Rainbow Warrior sinks after explosion 1985: Rainbow Warrior sinks after explosion The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior has been blown up in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. One of the 11 crew members on board has been killed. He has been named as Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, 33. Two explosions, 60 seconds apart, ripped through the stern at 2345 local time (1245 BST) and the environmentalists' boat sank in four minutes. Captain Peter Willcox said he had no idea what caused the blast, but strongly suspected sabotage since there were no explosives on board and only a small engine was operating at the time. The French connection The ship arrived in Auckland Harbour on Sunday and was due to lead a flotilla of boats to Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific to protest against French nuclear tests there. Interpol are looking for a Frenchman seen close to the Greenpeace boat late in the evening and they are also tracing a French-registered container ship that had been in the harbour. The crew - from the US and Europe - watched their boat sink from the dockside.

Some of them had been blown into the water by the second explosion after Captain Wilcox had given the order to evacuate. One crew member was feared missing but she had been on-shore taking a walk. Greenpeace officials from around the world were due to sleep on board the Rainbow Warrior tomorrow. New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange has condemned the explosion as "a major criminal act" and employed all government resources to investigate it. He has agreed to consider loaning Greenpeace a boat to continue with their anti-nuclear action. The New Zealand Government banned US nuclear warships from its ports in January. Greenpeace launched the 417 tonne, 40m-long Rainbow Warrior in 1978. It was named after a North American Indian legend but was built as a North Sea fishing trawler in 1955. zoom Around 8.30pm, 10 July 1985, Jean-Michel Bartelo put on his scuba gear and slipped beneath the water, heading for the Rainbow Warrior Those already on deck scramble up the ladder or leap to safety on the wharf.

Within minutes, they see the ship’s steel masts tilt towards them… The tragic death of a crew member “I stood there looking at the boat with all of these bubbles coming out of it,” captain Pete Willcox would later recall. “That’s when Davey [Edwards] said Fernando is down there. I remember arguing with him, saying no, Fernando has gone to town, that’s what he always did. No he said. Fernando is down there.” The Portugal-born Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira had joined the crew of the Rainbow Warrior to document the French nuclear testing and bring his photographs to the world. He was caught in a rush of water that night, and drowned. He had just celebrated his 35th birthday. A state-sanctioned bombing – shrewdly planned and executed The Rainbow Warrior wasn’t hit by a tug, of course. In an attempt to “neutralise” the ship ahead of its planned protest, French secret service agents in diving gear had attached two packets of plastic-wrapped explosives to it, one by the propeller, one to the outer wall of the engine room. Initially, the French government denied all knowledge of the operation, but it became soon obvious that they were involved.

Eventually, prime minister Laurent Fabius appeared on television and told a shocked public: “Agents of the DGSE (Secret Service) sank this boat. They acted on orders.” First they denied, then they disappeared Only two agents ever stood trial. Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, who had posed as Swiss tourists, pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and wilful damage, attracting sentences of 10 and 7 years. A UN negotiated settlement meant that they were transferred to Hao atoll, a French military base in French Polynesia. They were both released within less than two years. The spy who infiltrated the Greenpeace New Zealand office ahead of the bombing, Christine Cabon, evaded arrest in Israel. She hasn’t been seen since. The whereabouts of the combat frogman with the alias Jean-Michel Berthelot – one of the two divers believed to have planted the bombs – are unknown. Most of those involved in what happened that night in an Auckland harbour have simply disappeared.

You can’t sink a Rainbow The Rainbow Warrior was named after a North American Cree Indian prophecy: “When the world is sick and dying, the people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow…” On its bow she proudly carried a dove of peace carrying an olive branch – never leaving any doubt about her non-violent mission. All around her hull, there were the striking colours of the rainbow. After the bombing, the ship was given a resting place at Matauri Bay, in New Zealand’s Cavalli Islands, where it has become a living reef, attracting marine life and recreational divers. Greenpeace replaced her with a new vessel, and for 22 years, the second Rainbow Warrior has campaigned for a green and peaceful future. In 2011 the new Rainbow Warrior, the world's first purpose-built environmental campaigning ship, readied herself to carry on the original Rainbow Warrior’s spirit. It’s a spirit that will always live on.

Categories Rainbow Warrior sunk in Auckland | NZHistory, New Zealand history online Rainbow Warrior sunk in Auckland Rainbow Warrior sunk in Auckland 10 July 1985 Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (New Zealand Herald/newspix.co.nz) One crewmember died when French secret agents blew up the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour. The Rainbow Warrior had been involved in protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. French Secret Service (DGSE) agents were sent to prevent it leaving for another protest campaign at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. They attached and exploded two limpet mines on the hull of the ship, creating a massive hole and rendering the vessel useless. Photographer Fernando Pereira was killed in the explosion. DGSE officers Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart were charged with murder following the attack. After pleading guilty to manslaughter, they each received a 10-year prison sentence. Within a year, the pair were sent to French Polynesia, and from there they soon returned to France. The case caused the French government considerable embarrassment. While the attack was on an international organisation and not New Zealand as such, most Kiwis did not make this distinction.

The fact that it was carried out on New Zealand territory by a supposedly friendly nation caused outrage and seriously compromised relations between New Zealand and France. Read more on NZHistory 6. – Shipwrecks – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand Crew of the Mikhail Lermontov Rainbow Warrior The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland Harbour on 10 July 1985 by French saboteurs. The French government feared that the ship would draw attention to French nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll. French secret-service agents attached and exploded two limpet mines on the hull of the ship, creating a massive hole and rendering the vessel useless. Photographer Fernando Pereira was killed in the explosion. This event sparked a diplomatic row between New Zealand and France. Prime Minister David Lange described it as ‘a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’. Agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur were arrested, and each was given a 10-year sentence. Within a year the pair were sent to French Polynesia, and from there they soon returned to France.

The Mikhail Lermontov On 16 February 1986 the Soviet cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov was sailing through the Marlborough Sounds to Milford Sound with 738 passengers and crew aboard. At 5.37 p.m. the ship hit rocks off Cape Jackson. With its hull sliced open in three places, the 155-metre vessel limped towards Port Gore, where she finally sank at 10.45 p.m. A flotilla of small craft, the inter-island ferry Arahura and the LPG tanker Tarihiko rescued all but one of the passengers and crew. Refrigeration engineer Pavel Zaglyadimov drowned. Today, the liner lies on its side 30 metres below the sea. Since its sinking, the Mikhail Lermontov has claimed the lives of three recreational divers; two of the bodies have never been recovered.

July 10, 1985: Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior sunk by agents of the French government - BT July 10, 1985: Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior sunk by agents of the French government When the flagship of environmental organisation Greenpeace was torn apart by bombs in Auckland harbour, killing one activist, the finger of blame was to point all the way up to the office of the President of France himself. Print this story Thirty years ago today, French intelligence sank the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet as it lay berthed in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. The barbarous act of state-sponsored terrorism claimed the life of one of the crew members and ripped a gaping hole in France's standing on the world stage. The famous vessel was due to lead a flotilla of boats to Mururoa Atoll to protest against French nuclear tests in the Pacific, but its mission was brought to a shuddering halt at 11.45pm local time. The 11 people on board were either sleeping or preparing for bed when an explosion tore a hole in the stern of the moored ship. The sharp crack and sudden rush of water led the environmentalists to believe that the ship had been hit by a tugboat.

But just moments later, after Captain Peter Willcox had given the order to abandon ship, a second blast left the crew wise to their predicament: they were under attack. The second blast had blown some of the crew into the water. As they clambered to dry land it became apparent that Portuguese-born photographer Fernando Pereira was missing. In the relative calm that followed the first blast, the 35-year-old had returned below deck to fetch his camera equipment only to be drowned by the flooding brought on by the second explosion. As dawn broke, divers recovered remnants of limpet mines unavailable in New Zealand. The hunt for the saboteurs was on. Given the Rainbow Warrior's intended mission in the Pacific, France was soon forced to distance itself from the bombing, with its embassy in Wellington stating that "the French government does not deal with its opponents in such ways". Two days later, New Zealand police picked up Sophie and Alain Turenge as they were returning a rented camper van. They were carrying Swiss passports and claimed to be married. But the supposed holiday-makers were soon outed as Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur - agents of France's General Directorate for External Security (DGSE).

They were charged with murder, conspiring to commit arson and wilful damage. France continued to deny any involvement, even after Australian police picked up three more DGSE agents on Norfolk Island as they made their getaway by yacht, and even after a volunteer working in the Greenpeace office in Auckland was exposed as DGSE agent Christine Cabon. Eventually, with the world's media in a frenzied rush to implicate President Francois Mitterrand in the affair, Paris cracked. On September 21, Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned and Admiral Pierre Lacoste, head of the DGSE, was fired. On the following day, Prime Minister Laurent Fabius summoned journalists to his office and read a brief statement. "The truth is cruel," he said. "Agents of the French secret service sank this boat. They were acting on orders." Left high and dry by their superiors, Mafart and Prieur admitted to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in New Zealand. Despite the very public shaming it had endured, France somehow felt moved to challenge the verdict, threatening an economic embargo of New Zealand's exports to the European Economic Community if the pair were not released.

Fearing for their agricultural sector, New Zealand handed over the culprits to France in exchange for $6.5 million in compensation and an apology. The UN-sanctioned deal also stipulated that Mafart and Prieur must be detained until June 1989 at the French military base on Hao Atoll in French Polynesia. But in a blatant violation of the agreement, Mafart returned to Paris in December 1987 on medical grounds, and Prieur followed in May 1988 having fallen pregnant to her husband whilst on the atoll. And so ended an episode in French history as wicked as its designated codename - Operation Satanique. Should France have faced greater international censure for its part in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below. France sinks the Rainbow Warrior - Did you know? Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur are the only people to have ever stood trial for the manslaughter of Fernando Pereira.

Mafart (pictured below) was promoted to colonel in December 1993 and went on to write a book about his military exploits, naming it: Secret Notebooks of a Naval Frogman: Rainbow Warrior to the Ices of the Arctic. Prieur won promotion to the rank of commandant. She also wrote a book - Secret Agent - which dwelt on her role in the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. A legal technicality allowed the three agents questioned on Norfolk Island to walk away; they subsequently scuttled their yacht and returned to France on a submarine of the French navy. Christine Cabon, the Greenpeace spy, evaded arrest in Israel in the aftermath of the attack and has not surfaced since that time. Louis-Pierre Dillais, said to be the commander of the operation, was never captured and never faced charges - but he acknowledged his involvement in 2005. In 2005, French newspaper Le Monde released a 1986 report that said Admiral Pierre Lacoste, head of DGSE at the time the bombing, had "personally obtained approval to sink the ship from the late president Francois Mitterrand".

In the wake of the bombing, a flotilla of private New Zealand yachts sailed to Moruroa to protest against the French nuclear tests. Under mounting international pressure, France finally ratified the International Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1998 - but by then it had carried out 193 nuclear tests in Polynesia. The Rainbow Warrior was named after a North American Cree Indian prophecy: “When the world is sick and dying, the people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow.” Her wreck was towed out of Auckland Harbour and sunk at Matauri Bay in New Zealand’s Cavalli Islands. It is now a living reef, attracting marine life and recreational divers. A new Rainbow Warrior was launched in 1989. Many of its purpose-designed fittings were paid for with the $8.16 million compensation paid in 1987 to Greenpeace by the French government. In October 2011, Greenpeace launched a new sailing vessel called Rainbow Warrior III, which is equipped with an auxiliary electric motor. Incredibly, a picture taken by Mafart - a keen nature photographer - was included in the 2015 calendar produced by Greenpeace USA.

His image of a Namibian waterhole was bought from a photo library by publishers hired by Greenpeace, and the embarrassing glitch was spotted only after many of the calendars had been distributed and sold. Greenpeace duly recycled the remaining stocks and printed an alternative version featuring shots by a certain Fernando Pereira. French spy who sank Greenpeace ship apologises for lethal bombing | Environment | The Guardian Environmental activism French spy who sank Greenpeace ship apologises for lethal bombing Jean-Luc Kister was one of a team which planted mines on the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, killing photographer Fernando Pereira Picture taken on 14 August 1985 shows the Greenpeace boat sunk in the bay of Auckland in July by French secret services. Photograph: Patrick Riviere/AFP/Getty Images Sunday 6 September 2015 12.27 EDT Last modified on Sunday 6 September 2015 19.35 EDT Close This article is 1 year old A French secret service diver who took part in the operation to sink Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior 30 years ago has spoken publicly for the first time to apologise for his actions.

Jean-Luc Kister, who attached a mine to the ship’s hull, says the guilt of the bombing, which killed a photographer, still weighs heavily on his mind. “We are not assassins and we have a conscience,” the former agent told investigative website Mediapart . “I have the weight of an innocent man’s death on my conscience … It’s time, I believe, for me to express my profound regret and my apologies,” Kister said. French inquiry into bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior: from the archive, 24 September 1985 Read more He said he wanted to apologise to the family of the dead man, Fernando Pereira, “especially his daughter Marelle … for what I call an accidental death but what they consider an assassination”, to the Greenpeace crew aboard the ship and the people of New Zealand where the Rainbow Warrior was sunk. Kister was one of two divers serving with the French intelligence service, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE), who attached limpet mines to the hull of the vessel moored in Auckland in 1985.

The Rainbow Warrior was heading for the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific in French Polynesia where France was planning a series of nuclear tests. French agents posing as Swiss tourists had earlier visited the ship, which was open to the public, to gather information for the operation. The first mine exploded at 11.38pm when many of the crew were asleep, and blew a large hole in the ship’s hull. Pereira, who had returned to his cabin to retrieve his cameras was below deck when a second bomb exploded. The Portuguese-born photographer, 35, was trapped in his cabin and drowned. Paris initially denied any involvement in the sinking, codenamed Operation Satanique, and described it as a “terrorist attack”. Documents released in 2005 and published in the Guardian , showed that France tried to blame British intelligence for the sinking in a campaign of “misinformation and smears”. The French government’s responsibility, however, was quickly established and the incident became a political fiasco. Afterwards Steve Sawyer, worldwide director of Greenpeace, said French claims that the bombs were not intended to kill anyone were “total rubbish”.

“We were very lucky that a lot more people weren’t killed,” Sawyer told Democracy Now , earlier this year. Peter Willcox, captain of the Rainbow Warrior, added: “The bombs were so powerful that it was just a miracle we didn’t lose more people. The first bomb put a six- by seven-foot hole in the engine room. The second bomb was placed on the propeller shaft.” In 1987, under international pressure, France paid $8.2m damages to Greenpeace, which helped finance another ship. It also paid an undisclosed sum to the Pereira family. It halted its nuclear testing in the South Pacific in 1996. Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg: The Extraordinary Story of the Arctic Thirty review – frustrating account of Greenpeace activists Read more On the Greenpeace website , the organisation states states that the two French agents who posed as tourists pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and wilful damage and were sentenced to 10 and 7 years, but were released within two. Of the other intelligence operatives it says “most of those involved in what happened that night in an Auckland harbour have simply disappeared”.

In an interview with Mediapart’s founder, French journalist Edwy Plenel, Kister said he planted the explosives with a fellow agent Jean Camas. The pair were part of a team of 12 agents involved in the operation that was approved by France’s political leaders. “Thirty years after these events, now that emotions are calmer and with the distance I now have from my professional life, I believe it’s time for me to express both my profound regret and my apologies,” Kister said. “We aren’t cold-blooded killers, my conscience tells me to apologise and explain,” he added. Kister claims politicians in Paris turned down other suggestions for dealing with the Greenpeace protest. “There was a willingness at a high level to say ‘non, non, this has to stop for good, we have to have a much more radical measure. You have to sink it’. And you know, it’s simple. To sink a boat you have to make a hole in it, and that brings risks,” Kister said. Kister also gave an interview with New Zealand television TVNZ in which he described the operation as “like using boxing gloves to crush a mosquito”.

“It was a disproportionate operation, but we had to obey the order, we were soldiers,” added Col Kister who was a captain at the time. He said it was “an unfair clandestine operation conducted in an allied, friendly and peaceful country” adding that the mission was a “big, big failure”. He insisted the team’s goal was not to kill anyone, and accused French politicans of “high treason” for having leaked his name and role in the operation after the sinking. At the time, the only official heads to roll were defence minister Charles Hernu, who was forced to resign, and Adm Pierre Lacoste, head of the DGSE at the time, who was demoted. Jean-François Julliard, director general of Greenpeace France, told AFP that Pereira was “an innocent man sacrificed in the name of absurd reasoning of state … the attack was a crime and not an accident”. In a statement in French, Greenpeace said Kister, awarded the Legion d’Honneur in 1994 and a UN military adviser, was a “hardened officer” who had conceded that “Greenpeace activities didn’t justify such a heavy intervention”.

It called on Paris to name a street after the late photographer Pereira. “Col Jean-Luc Kister’s apologies will not bring back Fernando, but they prove, once more, that our comrade was an innocent who was sacrificed in the name of state reasoning that even one of the state’s own servants has questioned. That’s why, we would like to insist that French town halls, and particularly that of Paris, the capital of France’s major political decisions, that Fernando’s memory is properly and fully honoured, as it should be, with a road or a square named after him,” Greenpeace stated. Plenel said the very last question in the mystery was how much the then French president, socialist François Mitterrand knew. He was aware the operation was to take place, but “at what point did he know the operation would be so violent?” Plenel asked. In 2005, Le Monde released a 1986 report from Lacoste claiming he had “personally obtained approval to sink the ship” from Mitterrand.

Pete Bouquet Crewmember Pete Bouquet paints the Rainbow Warrior, 1978 It took Greenpeace eight months to raise enough money for a 10 percent down-payment on the rusting ship in 1978. The balance was due within 60 days. As time ran out, hopes of purchasing the ship waned. But when the Netherlands branch of the World Wildlife Fund agreed to help finance a campaign to save the whales, Greenpeace had acquired its first vessel in Europe. It was renamed 'Rainbow Warrior' after the Warriors in a North American Cree Indian prophecy: 'When the world is sick and dying, the people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow... Kwakiutl symbol Kwakiutl symbol of harmony with nature. Fresh paint, in striking rainbow patterns, was applied to the super-structure and on the bow a dove of peace carrying an olive branch symbolised the vessel's mission. On the stack of the ship, the crew painted a motif of two whales forming the infinite cycle of nature, which symbolized harmony with the natural world to the sea-faring Kwakiutl people of North America.

The symbol had been offered to Greenpeace campaigners during Greenpeace's first campaign to stop nuclear weapons testing in the Aleutian Islands. Crew of Rainbow Warrior on their way to Iceland in 1978 First voyage On 29 April 1978, as the Rainbow Warrior steamed proudly from the London docks, the Greenpeace and United Nations flags flew together to reflect not only the international composition of the 24-member crew from 10 countries, but global concern for the plight of the whales. Her first mission was to Iceland, to oppose the commercial whaling programme there. The entire operation was beset by almost insurmountable problems again and again: lack of money to buy fuel, legal wrangles, shortage of equipment and sheer exhaustion. But despite the odds, the Rainbow Warrior proved to be a truly seaworthy ship. In the autumn of 1981, the diesel electric propulsion engine system that had been lovingly rebuilt on many occasions had to be replaced. Greenpeace volunteers took out 45 tons of equipment from the engine room and installed new Detroit engines.

Ironically, it was discovered during the refit that the hydraulic system had been built to use whale oil, the dominant lubricant for this purpose in 1955. Wreck of the Rainbow Warrior. Wreck of the Rainbow Warrior. Sails In 1985, the Rainbow Warrior again underwent major conversion to a sail-assist system. The Marconi ketch rig made the Rainbow Warrior the largest yacht fitted with this type of sail rig. After the bombing of the ship in 1985 in New Zealand, the Rainbow Warrior was towed north from Auckland on 2 December 1987. Ten days later, a crowd of well-wishers looked on as it was given a traditional Maori burial. The Rainbow Warrior's final resting place is at Matauri Bay, in New Zealand's Cavalli Islands. It has become a living reef, attracting marine life and recreational divers. The idea was first proposed by the New Zealand Underwater Association. It seemed a fitting end for a ship that had spent its time protecting the marine environment. Now home to a complex ecosystem, the Rainbow Warrior has become a popular dive destination.

Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior – Political values – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand Next The mission of the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship, was to oppose French nuclear testing in the Pacific. In 1985 the Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland Harbour by French agents, with the death of crew member Fernando Pereira. France’s action epitomised what many New Zealanders saw as the arrogance of larger powerful nations. About this item Rainbow Warrior | ship | Britannica.com Rainbow Warrior THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. The Rainbow Warrior sinking at its berth, Auckland, New Zealand, July 10, 1985. Liaison/Getty Images Learn about this topic in these articles: in Greenpeace On July 10, 1985, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which was due to sail to Moruroa Atoll to protest French atmospheric nuclear-weapons tests there, was sunk by two bomb explosions while berthed in Auckland Harbour, N.Z. Subsequent revelations that French intelligence agents had planted the bombs caused a major international scandal and led to the resignation of France’s minister of...

French Secret Service Agent Who Led Fatal 1985 Bombing of Greenpeace Ship Breaks His Silence | Democracy Now! French Secret Service Agent Who Led Fatal 1985 Bombing of Greenpeace Ship Breaks His Silence StorySeptember 08, 2015 TVNZ Thirty years ago, French secret service blew up Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior ship in Auckland, New Zealand, killing a Portuguese photographer, as the ship was preparing to head to sea to protest against French nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific. Now the French intelligence agent who led the deadly attack has come forward for the first time to apologize for his actions, breaking his silence after 30 years. On July 10, 1985, Jean-Luc Kister led the dive team that planted the bombs on the Rainbow Warrior that sunk the ship and killed Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. TV New Zealand’s program "Sunday" recently tracked down Jean-Luc Kister in northern France and spoke to him about what happened that day. We air the TVNZ report. TRANSCRIPT This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Thirty years ago, French secret service blew up Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior ship in Auckland, New Zealand, killing a Portuguese photographer, as the ship was preparing to head to sea to protest French nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific. Now the French intelligence agent who led the deadly attack has come forward for the first time to apologize for his actions, breaking his silence after 30 years. On July 10th, 1985, Jean-Luc Kister led the dive team that planted the bombs on the Rainbow Warrior that sunk the ship and killed Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. TV New Zealand’s program Sunday this weekend tracked down Jean-Luc Kister in northern France and spoke to him about what happened that day. Reporter John Hudson also spoke with Peter Willcox, the captain of the Greenpeace ship, as well as Fernando Pereira’s daughter and the Le Monde journalist who helped break the remarkable story. This video report begins with Jean-Luc Kister, the French secret service agent, admitting his involvement in the fatal bombing. JEAN-LUC KISTER: My role was to plant to two bombs on the Rainbow Warrior. JOHN HUDSON: He led the dive team. He set the bombs.

And for 30 years he remained hidden, guarding the secret of what really happened the night the Rainbow Warrior was sunk. JEAN-LUC KISTER: For a member of the secret service, we never talk. JOHN HUDSON: But finally, he is talking. JEAN-LUC KISTER: We were not cold-blooded killers. We did everything to preserve the life of the people on board of the Rainbow Warrior. JOHN HUDSON: From your point of view, was your part of the operation a success? JEAN-LUC KISTER: No, for me, it was not successful. It was a big, big failure. JOHN HUDSON: July 1985, the Rainbow Warrior sails into Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, accompanied by a flotilla ready to join the Greenpeace ship at Moruroa Atoll to protest against French nuclear testing. PETER WILLCOX: We were preparing to go to French Polynesia, where we were going to protest the nuclear testing of France. JOHN HUDSON: But the French government had other ideas. It sent 13 members of its secret service, the DGSE, to sink the Rainbow Warrior before it left Auckland.

PETER WILLCOX: The French had always claimed that they didn’t want to kill anybody. But in my opinion, either they were blatantly incompetent or, if they didn’t want to kill anybody, they really didn’t care if they did. JOHN HUDSON: Just before midnight on July the 10th, two bombs exploded. The first blew a two-square-meter hole in the engine room. The second smaller bomb was attached to the keel. PETER WILLCOX: It was the force of the second explosion that I’m sure trapped him in the room. JOHN HUDSON: Two days after the bombing, detectives, acting on a tip-off, arrested two French agents—Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart—traveling on fake passports, posing as Swiss honeymooners. The Ouvéa, a charter yacht, which brought the bombs to New Zealand, was searched in Norfolk Island and then released. At first, discarded equipment, the only clues to the agents who planted the bombs. So, who were they? How did they get away? We know that the French government ordered the attack to be carried out by the French secret service.

But what about the agent responsible for planting the bombs that sank the Rainbow Warrior? Well, here in northern France, Sunday has tracked him down. This is Metz, a 3,000-year-old city in Lorraine province. It’s now home to Colonel Jean-Luc Kister, a former head of the combat dive team of the French secret service. So, you put both the bombs on the hull yourself and set them? JEAN-LUC KISTER: Yes, yes, I was the team leader, and I had the responsibility for this part of the operation. JOHN HUDSON: Colonel Kister remembers being surprised when told of the plan to stop the Rainbow Warrior. JEAN-LUC KISTER: For us, Greenpeace members were engaged troublemakers, but not very dangerous. We were amazed that such an operation can be conducted on there. JOHN HUDSON: But this was the time of the Cold War with the Soviets. JEAN-LUC KISTER: We were told that Greenpeace was infiltrated by the KGB. This was the explanation given to us. JOHN HUDSON: Jean-Luc Kister had become a military cadet at just 17.

By 1985, he was a captain in the combat dive team, a highly trained professional soldier. So why was the decision taken to blow it up and sink it in Auckland harbor? JEAN-LUC KISTER: One option would have been to plant the bomb in Vanuatu or in Auckland and to delay the explosion when the boat would be offshore. This was certainly the safest for the operators, but the more dangerous for the crew, and it was immediately abandoned. JOHN HUDSON: Another option, to contaminate the ship’s fuel with bacteria, was also abandoned. JEAN-LUC KISTER: I don’t know who decided to sink it, but it was clear that in Auckland this was certainly easier. And the fact that the ship was docked was less dangerous for the crew, because we thought also that due to the low tide, even if the boat was sunk, it will lay on the bottom, not totally submerged. It was decided that the explosion could occur around midnight. It was thought that nobody would be in the engine room. JOHN HUDSON: Why two bombs? JEAN-LUC KISTER: One bomb was expected to make the people to evacuate the boat, and the second to sink it.

JOHN HUDSON: But Jean-Luc Kister has revealed that’s not what happened. He placed the first, larger bomb on the hull, next to the engine room. JEAN-LUC KISTER: It was decided by the chief of the operation to make the first one to explode, in order that when there will be water inside the boat, at that time, everybody will evacuate. JOHN HUDSON: But the ship sank much faster than they had expected. The second, smaller bomb clamped on the keel was designed to keep people off the boat. But, in fact, it killed a man. So how long was the delay between the two explosions? JEAN-LUC KISTER: We trigger with four minutes’ delay between the two bombs. Everything was done to prevent anybody to come back. JOHN HUDSON: Was four minutes really long enough, do you think, for people to evacuate? JEAN-LUC KISTER: It was thought that it was enough time, and we didn’t expect the boat will sink so quickly. JOHN HUDSON: The plan was to sink the Rainbow Warrior while keeping the crew out of harm’s way. But they got it wrong.

We now know the French agents blew a hole in the Rainbow Warrior far larger than they had expected. Before the bombing, combat divers were watching their target. JEAN-LUC KISTER: And we have seen that there was a sailing ship along the Rainbow. JOHN HUDSON: They had been ordered to place the first, larger bomb portside, but realized this would have endangered anyone on board the yachts alongside. JEAN-LUC KISTER: I decided to put it on the starboard of the boat, always thinking not to hurt anybody. JOHN HUDSON: There were three agents on the Zodiac, carrying two bombs to sink the ship: Jean-Luc Kister and Jean Cammas were the combat divers; Gérard Royal, the boatman. The two combat divers slipped into the water and were towed under the inflatable and released 500 meters from the target. JEAN-LUC KISTER: And we all linked together by rope, because we are operating in the darkness. JOHN HUDSON: Whereabouts on the boat did you set the bombs? JEAN-LUC KISTER: On the hull. JOHN HUDSON: It was on the hull?

JEAN-LUC KISTER: Yeah JOHN HUDSON: On board, a birthday party is underway. PETER WILLCOX: We were quite fortunate, because the first bomb blew a two-by-two-meter hole right in the side of the hull. I mean, the boat sank in 45 seconds. JOHN HUDSON: When you were planting the bombs, were you aware that there were people on board? JEAN-LUC KISTER: No, no. No, we didn’t know anything on what was happening. And if there were some people on board, everything was done in order that they can evacuate. JOHN HUDSON: Wasn’t there a real danger that the first blast could have killed people? JEAN-LUC KISTER: No. We thought that nobody would be in the engine room at midnight. JOHN HUDSON: This is a photograph of the damage done by the bomb. JEAN-LUC KISTER: It’s a big hole. JOHN HUDSON: A much bigger hole than you would have thought. JEAN-LUC KISTER: We didn’t expect to have such a large hole in the hull. JOHN HUDSON: There was shrapnel that ripped through the upper decks.

Did you calculate that that could have killed people? JEAN-LUC KISTER: No, it was not expected to have any other damage. We had never the opportunity to test the real effect on a real boat. JOHN HUDSON: Fortunately, no one was in the engine room or on the upper decks. PETER WILLCOX: If the first bomb had gone off half an hour sooner, we would have lost 20 of us. JOHN HUDSON: In 1985, Peter Willcox was the skipper of Rainbow Warrior. He was in bed asleep when the first bomb exploded. PETER WILLCOX: We barely had enough time to get everybody off. JOHN HUDSON: And not everybody did get off. PETER WILLCOX: That’s Fernando, in the Marshalls, I suspect. Fernando had been in the mess and had gone to his cabin to get his cameras. And that’s when the second bomb went off. And the second bomb trapped him in his cabin and drowned him. JOHN HUDSON: The second, smaller bomb, supposedly designed to keep the crew off the boat, caused the drowning of photographer Fernando Pereira.

The captain of the Rainbow Warrior, Peter Willcox, says that this was murder, that they knew there were people on board. JEAN-LUC KISTER: Yes, I understand his point of view. But, for us, on our side, we think that it was unfortunately an accidental death of an innocent, Fernando Pereira. MARELLE PEREIRA: My dad has been murdered. I don’t see it as manslaughter. I don’t see it as accidental killing. JOHN HUDSON: Ten years ago, Sunday spoke to Fernando Pereira’s daughter, Marelle. She was just eight when her father died. MARELLE PEREIRA: Sometimes you think, "Errgh, why?" JEAN-LUC KISTER: I would like to take this opportunity given to me by the TV of New Zealand to express my deepest regrets and apologies to Ms. Marelle Pereira and her family for the accidental death of Fernando Pereira. JOHN HUDSON: Are you hoping that when Marelle sees this, that she will find it in her heart to forgive you?

JEAN-LUC KISTER: Yes, I would like that she express any forgiveness for me, for us, for all the team, because we didn’t intend to kill anybody during this operation. JOHN HUDSON: And the apologies didn’t stop there. JEAN-LUC KISTER: I want to apologize also to Greenpeace members who were on board of the Rainbow Warrior. And I want to apologize to the people of New Zealand for the unfair, clandestine operation conducted in an allied, friendly and peaceful country. JOHN HUDSON: Why has it taken 30 years for you to make that apology? JEAN-LUC KISTER: Thirty years ago, I was a soldier. And after that, I was engaged in many operations, also with the United Nations security. And I had to obey to the orders at that time. But now I am retired from the active service, and I want to obey to my consciousness. JOHN HUDSON: But an apology 30 years on doesn’t wash with Peter Willcox. PETER WILLCOX: Soldiers have to have some level of personal responsibility. And obviously they had none.

JOHN HUDSON: So it’s not good enough to say, "Oh, I was acting on orders"? PETER WILLCOX: No. Oh, it’s not. I think that’s modern morality. And I think that the men that planted the amount of explosives that they did proved without a doubt that they didn’t care how many people they killed. JOHN HUDSON: Peter Willcox says it’s not good enough for soldiers to simply say they were taking orders. They need to think through the morality of their actions. JEAN-LUC KISTER: Normally, a soldier should not obey an illegal order. But this was order given at the highest level of the government. So, yes, we had to obey the orders. JOHN HUDSON: Wasn’t this a terrorist act? JEAN-LUC KISTER: For us, it was a sabotage operation and no more. PETER WILLCOX: Nobody has ever paid the price for Fernando’s murder. Nobody. I mean, France, France hasn’t even apologized for it. They don’t care. I think that’s despicable.

JOHN HUDSON: After setting the bombs, Jean-Luc Kister made his getaway in the Zodiac to a rendezvous with a camper van near the Auckland Harbour Bridge. JEAN-LUC KISTER: We heard on the radio that somebody was killed. And everybody was very, very shocked. JOHN HUDSON: When did you realize that morally this was the wrong thing to do? JEAN-LUC KISTER: Immediately when I knew that Fernando Pereira died. JOHN HUDSON: Is this something that’s plagued you for the past 30 years, been on your conscience? JEAN-LUC KISTER: Yes. Many time, I am thinking about these things, because, for me, I have an innocent death on my consciousness. JOHN HUDSON: A week after the bombing, Jean-Luc Kister and his dive buddy, Jean Cammas, were photographed at a youth hostel in Methven. JEAN-LUC KISTER: We stay in the country 10 or 12 days, skiing in the South Island. JOHN HUDSON: Then they left New Zealand using false passports. How did you feel when you found out that it was the French that were responsible?

PETER WILLCOX: Oh, so shocked, so completely shocked. I mean, how could we, a bunch of hippies on an old steel trawler, scare a superpower so much they would set out to murder us? What possibly could we have done? We were speaking truth to power. That was about it. Is that really what scared them so badly? JOHN HUDSON: Were there repercussions within the DGSE about this? Was there any debate about what happened? JEAN-LUC KISTER: There was no real debriefing at the DGSE headquarters, because they were so much occupied with the problems in France, and it was a real political fiasco. That could have been a Watergate, a French Watergate. They could have proved that the president was aware. JOHN HUDSON: By early September 1985, the French government was under pressure. CHARLES HERNU: [translated] No one in my ministry received an order to commit the attack against the Rainbow Warrior. JOHN HUDSON: Defense Minister Charles Hernu denied ordering the bombing. The French agents arrested and imprisoned in New Zealand, he claimed, had simply been observing Greenpeace.

But then the newspaper Le Monde dropped a bomb of its own, revealing that a third team of French combat divers had planted the explosives. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: It’s a very traditional investigation. Finally, the truth was revealed by the press. JOHN HUDSON: Edwy Plenel was the police reporter on Le Monde. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: The Rainbow Warrior was sinked by a third team of French military. It was the missing link. JOHN HUDSON: He and his colleagues discovered the combat divers through a process of elimination. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: And finally, we succeeded to identify an officer, a sub-officer, two guys, frogmen, to put the bomb. It was Kister and Cammas. JOHN HUDSON: When you ran that story, what was the government reaction? HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: We publish our information on the Tuesday, and Charlie Hernu and Amiral Lacoste dismiss on the Friday. Three days. The truth is that France organized this bombing and must apologize to New Zealand. JOHN HUDSON: The decision to sink the Rainbow Warrior came directly from the top in French politics.

Thirty years ago this month, the defense minister, Charles Hernu, resigned over his role in the affair. But what about the president, Mitterrand? He lasted in office for a further 10 years, even though funding for the operation came directly from his office. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: The documents about the financement, the finance, exist. JOHN HUDSON: Edwy Plenel says, after Charlie Hernu resigned, the French government continued a campaign of misinformation to protect the president. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: They said, until many months, that there was no third team. JOHN HUDSON: Did Laurent Fabius know what was going on? HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: No, no. JOHN HUDSON: And yet he was the prime minister. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: The prime minister was not involved. Only the army, the minister of defense, the president of the republic. Mitterrand gave the order, in fact. JEAN-LUC KISTER: In France, the president is the chief of the army, so sometimes there are the direct link between the minister of defense and the chief of the army.

So, Laurent Fabius was not aware. JOHN HUDSON: He was cut out of the loop? JEAN-LUC KISTER: Yes. JOHN HUDSON: However, Jean-Luc Kister believes someone in the prime minister’s office leaked his name to the media. JEAN-LUC KISTER: I thought that the leak is coming from the high level, politician level. HERVÉ EDWY PLENEL: On this point, I don’t agree with Colonel Kister. The reason we knew the name was not the prime minister give us the name. JOHN HUDSON: Jean-Luc Kister says being named as the diver who planted the bombs on the Rainbow Warrior cost him dearly. JEAN-LUC KISTER: My family was very shocked. My wife was shocked by the fact that somebody died in this operation, because before the operation, she didn’t know where I was. And a few years later, I get divorced, like many others. JOHN HUDSON: Colonel Kister told me he’s been involved in many clandestine operations. He’s been wounded several times and is a recipient of the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest order.

However, bombing the Rainbow Warrior was not his finest hour. JEAN-LUC KISTER: For us, it was just like to use boxing gloves in order to crush a mosquito, you know? And it was a disproportionate operation. But we had to obey the order, and we were soldiers. JOHN HUDSON: To emphasize how disappointed he feels about the Auckland bombing, Jean-Luc Kister wanted to take us to this World War II memorial, one of many scattered across northern France. Why is it important to you to bring us here? JEAN-LUC KISTER: Seven thousand seven hundred and eighty Kiwi soldiers died in France during the two world wars. JOHN HUDSON: Here, among the Aussies, Canadians and Brits, lie Kiwi airmen killed while fighting to liberate France. For Jean-Luc Kister, this, more than anything, is a symbol of why Opération Satanique was ill-conceived. JEAN-LUC KISTER: It was wrong. It was a very wrong decision to conduct such an operation in an allied country, in a friendly country. There are the memories of these strong links between France and New Zealand, and we will always remember the sacrifice they have done for our country.

JOHN HUDSON: President François Mitterrand remained close friends with former Defense Minister Charles Hernu long after he sacked him. Both men have since died. Meanwhile, Peter Willcox is still busy saving the planet—in Rainbow Warrior III, trying to prevent climate change and overfishing. For him, Jean-Luc Kister’s apology changes little. PETER WILLCOX: They’re the ones that have to live with themselves. They’ve made their bed. Let them sleep at night. JOHN HUDSON: Peter Willcox said it’s probably 30 years too late. JEAN-LUC KISTER: It’s never too late for apologies. AMY GOODMAN: That report by John Hudson for TV New Zealand’s program, Sunday, about the blowing up of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in July of 1985 as the ship was preparing to head to sea to protest against French nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific. French secret service agent Jean-Luc Kister, who placed the bombs, reportedly asked to meet Fernando Pereira’s daughter, Marelle, to offer an apology for killing her father, the Portuguese photographer on board the Rainbow Warrior.

Marelle declined, saying, "The fact that he seems truly remorseful is enough information for my family and I. He has to live with himself knowing what he did and what he was a part of." The TV program Sunday also contacted Greenpeace New Zealand’s executive director, Bunny McDiarmid, for a comment. She said, quote, "I’m glad someone from that murderous fiasco apologized. But it’s 30 years later, nobody was held to account for the murder of Fernando." That does it for this report. You can visit our website to watch our interview with Rainbow Warrior Captain Peter Willcox . This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Find out who Donald Trump met with at a news conference he held in New York. But first we go to Guatemala City to find out about the elections in Guatemala after the president was imprisoned. Stay with us. [break] AMY GOODMAN: Bonnie "Prince" Billy singing "Black Captain," revised for Peter Willcox, the captain of the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s ship. The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License .

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Question: What was the name of the Greenpeace ship sunk in Auckland harbour in 1985?
Answer: Rainbow Warrior